


Emotions Are Dumb But So Is Everything Else

by scrawly_times



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, it's a bit of a mix between dark and dorky because it's isaac and richard what do you expect, let rick and isaac have a good father/son/mentor/student relationship 2k17, vagabond au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 15:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11992500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrawly_times/pseuds/scrawly_times
Summary: Rick left Mayview when he was thirteen. Isaac's house was burned down in an electrical fire when he was nine. These two things have more in common than you'd think.Cross-country roadtrips, revelations, confused dorks, Consortium dodging, and an inordinate amount of selfies ensue





	Emotions Are Dumb But So Is Everything Else

**Author's Note:**

> I will unapologetically make ten thousand AUs for everything I love

Isaac was just… tired. Everyone was making him tired.

The nine year old was grouchy and cranky for a week leading up to the accident. The adults mostly just laughed and brushed him off. _Of course_. They didn’t ever really do anything besides yell at him when he got mad normally. Now he just… he knew something was _off_ and they didn’t care.

Of course, how was a fourth grader supposed to know how to articulate just how horrible he was feeling to a bunch of adults who thought of him as a ‘problem child’?

Isaac didn’t mean to get mad. It just… happened, a lot. Certain things, little things, that other students did would just… make him angry. If too many little things happened it would build up and up and pop like a balloon and nobody would understand why when he started screaming and crying in the middle of class.

There’d been a few teachers who tried to sign him up for ‘special classes’ but his parents had said no. It was embarrassing, and would get him bullied, and he really _was_ a smart kid! He just needed to focus and pay attention in class. That’s what they said anyways.

Isaac stopped telling his parents about stuff that happened in school after that.

They just thought he needed to ‘calm down’. How was he supposed to be calm when the entire school thought he was a weirdo who was angry all the time? Even worse: once the other kids realized what made him angry they would start to do it even more because they thought it was funny when he ‘freaked out’.

One morning Isaac woke up feeling… calm. His parents remarked on his unusually good mood and he just grinned at them.

Then he got to school and everything went south.

 _Noise_.

Normally Isaac didn’t care about the noisy classroom, but suddenly it practically weighed his head down and squeezed him like he was being crushed. He tried to plug his ears and put his sweater over his head but nothing he did made it _stop_.

His parents had to come get him after he started screaming in the middle of class and half the other kids started to cry. He got in _so_ much trouble when he got home.

But it just… didn’t stop. Isaac was _nine years old_. He didn’t know how to explain the overwhelming pressure in his head or the way he couldn’t control what he felt anymore. He was mad then he was happy then he was sad then he was disgusted then he was feeling _weird_ and then the creepy third grade teacher tried to grab his shoulder and went pale and had to go to the hospital.

After that Isaac had to go home because he was throwing up and crying again. Half his class was sick and Isaac couldn’t control _anything_ , it was all going out of control.

Home was safer than school. There was a lot less pressure and emotions without all the other kids and all the teachers around. But it was still… he still got angry, and there was an ugly dark feeling in his chest that made him want to scream and yell at people until it went away. His parents were super mad at him for how “troublesome” he’d been the past week and it made it worse. He swore he could feel their anger through the very walls.

No, the place Isaac felt the safest right now was the forest. He liked to run around the trees and pretend he was a brave soldier, fighting monsters and demons like in one of those shows he kept seeing on TV. The trees were his playground and his sanctuary. Somehow… the forest felt _quieter_.

Not literally quieter, because even Isaac knew that the forest was usually filled with all sorts of cool background noises. But when he was alone out in the woods the pressure went away and he could finally feel what _he_ felt instead of everything the pressure shoved into him. It was peaceful.

* * *

 His parents were super mad at him. The creepy third grade teacher who made his insides twist and turn still hadn’t woken up from… whatever Isaac did. Or, his parents thought he did it? Isaac didn’t know. Everything hurt and his head was too stuffed full to think about anything. Words didn’t make sense right now.

His mom and dad radiated anger at him and he didn’t… he didn’t know _why_. That deep ugly bruise feeling in his gut got stronger the longer they walked around in silence around the house. They weren’t yelling at him or anything, but it _felt_ like they were.

The pressure wasn’t as bad as it was at school but the emotions were too much. Isaac felt some strange… shift, in the pressure. The anger calmed down, the sheer rage and that dark feeling changed to something _worse_. If he were older and more coherent he might compare it to the calm before the storm.

All Isaac knew was that he needed to _get away from it_.

For once his own emotions overrode everything the pressure shoved at him and he ran out of the house, knowing he needed to escape but not knowing why or where to.

Whenever Isaac was upset and the pressure was too much, he always went to the woods. This time it was one of his only places _to_ go. He could hear yelling, could feel the deadly calm rising and crashing back into a frantic rage. He ran faster.

Isaac knew these woods. He’d played in them for ages, run in between the trees and memorized the paths. He had a head start and he knew how to avoid all the bushes and thorns that used to trip him up.

But he was nine, and his opponent was a fiery bundle of angerragerightousnessfury. That… that wasn’t his dad. Not anymore. His dad was more than just angry emotions pounding in Isaac’s head and chest until nothing made sense anymore.

The enemy caught up to him frighteningly fast. Isaac was running between trees and trying to trip it up but he just wasn’t fast enough. Longer legs, bigger, stronger; Isaac was too small and weak to avoid it when it caught up to him and grabbed him painfully tight.

Angerpainoutrageindignity, something, something, _something_ Isaac couldn’t understand with the maelstrom of emotion holding onto him and shaking him and _please someone help, I’m afraid._ Words didn’t pass through the fog of pressure in his brain and Isaac froze limply in his father’s hold like a rag doll.

People heard him. Well, a person. But he was too far away to help. No… some _thing_ heard him, in the woods, one of _many_ things in the woods Isaac wasn’t really aware of, something weakened and in need of power…

_“HE SHALL KNOW JUSTICE.”_

Isaac remembered the feeling of raindrops and cold wind on his skin before everything went _blue_.

* * *

  _I’m scared._

_I’m afraid._

_My dad’s gone and something Angry is trying to hurt me and I’m afraid._

_He’s scaring me he’s hurting me help._

_EVERYTHING IS BLUE, HELP._

_SOMETHING SCREAMED AND I THINK IT WAS MY DADDY BUT HE’S GONE HE’S GONE WHY IS HE GONE?_

_THE PRESSURE’S GONE BUT IT STILL HURTS EVERYTHING HURTS HELP ME I’M SCARED._

_THERE’S TOO MUCH I’M GOING TO DROWN MAKE ITSTOP_

“You don’t have to be afraid like this!”

_What?_

“It’s okay to be scared but you don’t have to be! You don’t have to let it control you!”

_It hurts…_

“I know it’s confusing, but you have to calm down okay?” The pressure… it was back but. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t harsh and pressing it was soft and gentle and only kind of demanding, like a real heavy blanket that he knew he could push off if he wanted to but he _didn’t_ want to.

_There’s too much._

“I want you to just focus on me, okay?” The voice was forcefully calm and he knew, he could feel, the calm pressure wiggled underneath with crawling worry and… and…

_Why are you afraid?_

“Everyone’s afraid, most of the time. If you aren’t afraid that’s silly.”

_But… it hurts…_

“You’re not supposed to let it hurt. Fear is your mind’s way of telling you something is wrong. If you let the fear overwhelm you and don’t fix the problem, of course it will hurt.”

_But you’re afraid._

“Of course I’m afraid. I’m scared for you. I’m afraid that you’re going to get hurt.”

_I…_

“Please. Just take a deep breath, and let it out. There you go.” He wasn’t aware of following the voice’s instructions but… the soft pressure was so nice, and it made him feel safe and warm…

Isaac opened his eyes.

There was blue. There was black.

Blue energy poured off of his hands and lightning danced all around him. The black was from everything in his vicinity that had been burnt and electrocuted to a crisp.

Someone stood nearby, in the black, close but not too close. The lightning was slowly dying down and collecting in an interlocking web around him like some sort of bizarre cocoon.

“How…” His throat was dry and scratchy. “...how are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” The strange man knelt down to be on his eye level, not coming any closer even as the cocoon contracted to mere inches around Isaac.

“Making the heaviness go away. Or…” Isaac sniffed and rubbed at his eyes, sinking and falling down weakly. The man jerked and the even pressure jumped with him - panic, worry - but then it settled again and the man smoothed his face out to look calm. “You keep… making it not as… loud.” Isaac stumbled through the words, hugging his knees and trying to find a way to voice the weird feelings in his head. Words didn’t make sense but people were supposed to use words to talk.

“Heh, well, I’m kind of used to people needing… quiet.” The man smiled awkwardly. “Are you okay? Can you tell me what happened?”

Isaac stared down at the charred ground. “...I… don’t know.”

“Really?” There was another flicker underneath the calm and Isaac looked up sharply. The man seemed to get what he’d noticed. “Sorry, but you must remember _something_. If it makes you upset you don’t have to talk about it.”

“I… everything was too loud… and…” Isaac sniffed again and squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on that calm pressure. “...my mom and dad… they were… mad… I got scared… a-and…”

 _I got scared that they were going to hurt me_.

The pressure softened and the calm turned into sadness, an ache deep in his chest that Isaac didn’t understand. The man shook his head and Isaac _felt_ him shove his sadness aside and move the calmness back. Isaac’s eyes were still shut.

“My name’s Rick. What’s yours?”

“...” He swallowed dryly. “I- Isaac.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Isaac.” Rick smiled kindly at him and Isaac knew he was being sincere because he could _feel_ it. “I wish it wasn’t from this kind of situation, but… I can help. Some weird stuff’s happened, and it’s going to _keep_ happening, but you don’t have to be scared of it.”

He was silent for a minute, thinking about that.

“Like… you said I can’t let fear… overwhelm me. What’s overwhelm mean?” Isaac sniffled.

“It means you can’t let it control you.” Rick said. “It’s okay to be afraid, in fact it’s _smart!_ There’s some scary things out there. But if you let it take over…” There was more sadness as Rick looked around the new clearing.

They were both quiet for a few minutes. Isaac was… tired. And afraid.

_I’m afraid because I’m tired and I don’t want to fall asleep and disappear._

“Hey, a nap would help you a lot right now.” Rick smiled. Isaac started.

_I’m scared how’d he do that I didn’t say anything._

“You know how you feel that weird…. Heaviness? How you keep feelings things that aren’t your own feelings?” Rick said slowly, Isaac nodding along. That… really explained the unfamiliar stuff that had been going on that he hadn’t been able to put into words. “Well, I can hear things that don’t come from my mind. Like you can feel things that other people are feeling. Except I don’t know how yours works, yet, and mine works really weird.” Rick rocked back on his heels and looked up at the sky. There was… an aged fadedness to his pressure that made Isaac want to dust it off and fix it. “I can hear what people are afraid of. It’s how I got through to you when you were upset.”

Isaac was quiet. He guessed that made sense. “Is… it really okay to sleep?” He was so, so tired. Rick looked back at him and his pressure wavered unsteadily, but sincerely.

“Of course. I’ll make sure you’re safe, okay?”

“...okay.”

The thin skin of lightning crackling over him faded away and Isaac’s eyes rolled back in his skull.

* * *

 Rick lunged to catch the child before he fell over, only just managing to keep Isaac’s head from slamming into the ground due to how far away he was. He picked the poor kid up and sighed wearily.

“Lucifer…” Rick looked up at his spirit as they were pulled into their shared mindscape. “I don’t know what to do. He’s clearly a ‘path of some sort, and spectrals don’t…”

 _“THey wILL ASsume hE IS MErely A STRAnge speCTRAL With POWErs they don’T RECOGnize.”_ The light spirit drifted over and stared down at the boy. _“THEy wiLL OUTCast hIM AND RefusE TO HElp him prOPERLy. HOWever yOU CAN’t exacTLY Just kiDNAP THE Boy.”_

“That is… a valid point.” Rick flinched and looked down at the charred, human sized lump nearby. “But how can we leave him here after that?”

_“WATch ovER Him.”_

Rick looked up at Lucifer in surprise.

“But- we can’t stay in Mayview. We only came to check out the lead Arthur had, which proved out to be truer than we could have guessed- we barely got here in the nick of _time-_ ”

 _“WE CANnot leAVE HIm.”_ His spirit’s single eye tilted at him, wings folding slightly.

“But-” Rick sighed and groaned. “I guess… I’ll... call the authorities, tell them I found him while hiking… hang nearby until I can hear back from Arthur on what the heck I’m supposed to do next..?”

Lucifer, appeased, faded away as he let their link drop. Rick felt a slight tug on his mind and looked down again.

_I’m afraid, it’s dark and I’m alone._

Poor kid was having a nightmare already. Rick wasn’t the best at this, but… he put a hand on the kid’s forehead and focused his emotions on _calm_. Physical touch made an empath’s powers even stronger and if his guess was right, that’s what Isaac was.

The slight tugging of fear on his senses went away and Rick sighed in relief. Then he looked around at the brand new charred clearing and bit his lip nervously. He was _so_ not going to have a fun time explaining this to the police.

**Author's Note:**

> Lemme know what you thought! Or what you'd like to see happen and explained :P
> 
> Over on tumblr I'm taking MSA, pnat, and monterkind prompts so go hmu!


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